Aston Martin Lagonda returns

Aston Martin has confirmed it intends to revive the Lagonda nameplate with a super-exclusive four-door ‘super saloon’.

How exclusive? Well, it will be offered for sale by invitation only and only to Middle East customers. Pricing is confidential, but we suspect that it will fall firmly into “if you have to ask…” category and, to the target market, is largely irrelevant anyhow.

Technical details are currently scarce, but Aston confirmed the car will be built on the VH architecture that underpins all its current models and use carbonfibre body panels.

Under the bonnet will reside a version of Aston’s 5.9-litre V12, though considering the clientele surely more than one customer will request fitment of the 559kW 7.3-litre V12 from the One-77 hypercar.

Aston’s latest four-door is said to draw inspiration from the William Towns-designed Lagonda produced during the 1970s and ’80s. That’s not a promising start, as the Lagonda is often referred to as one of the worst cars ever made thanks to its horrendous fuel economy, strange styling and truly disastrous reliability.

As the world’s first computer-managed production car, catastrophic electronic failures were commonplace, and the development cost of the electronics alone was four times the budget allocated for the whole car.

No release date is currently offered, though a reveal at the famous Pebble Beach Concours has been mooted.